The present invention relates to a bath additive composition, in particular an oil bath preparation, containing at least one surface-active component, preferably a water-soluble emulsifier, at least one oily or oil-containing component selected from the natural and synthetic, mineral, ethereal and fatty animal and vegetable oils, optionally a solvent or solvent mixture, and optionally further additives and/or adjuvants.
Baths containing added bath preparations having a suitable cosmetic, therapeutic and/or physiological effect (bath additive preparations) are enjoying increasing popularity, since they not only serve to clean the body, but also have a regenerating and normalizing effect on the skin due to their content of skin care ingredients, and have a refreshing, relaxing and possibly healing effect on the human body due to their content of medicinal or therapeutic additives, such as, for example, ethereal oils. Bath preparations of this type are also called oil or skin-care baths. Moreover, they can also contain perfuming additives.
Bath preparations of this type are supplied in solid, liquid (including gelatinous and highly viscous) or pasty form. Liquid preparations are preferably used which frequently take the form of aqueous or oily emulsions or dispersions. They customarily contain the following primary constituents: at least one surface-active compound which acts as a surfactant, emulsifying, dispersing, solubilizing and/or wetting agent and is either largely water-soluble or largely fat-soluble; at least one active compound which exerts a caring, protecting, regenerating, vitalizing and/or medicinal therapeutic effect, and optionally an aqueous or organic solvent or solvent mixture.
Pure cosmetic active ingredients include, for example, additives based on lipids and other creaming, oil-restoring substances which affect the water-binding power of the skin. These also include certain vegetable and animal oils which have cosmetic properties. A medicinal therapeutic effect on the human body can be achieved, for example, by means of specific ethereal oils or vegetable extracts.
As further constituents, bath additive preparations can contain foam improvers and enhancers, pH regulators, preservatives having antiseptic, bactericidal or bacteriostatic properties, antioxidants, thickeners or viscosity regulators, colorants and/or fragrances.
The bath preparations are added to the bath water in accordance with appropriate dosage instructions, the preparation being adjusted to assure a uniform distribution of the constituents of the formulation in the bath water or spreading of the preparation on the surface of the water.
Bath preparations in accordance with the prior art are disadvantageous in two different respects.
On the one hand, it is difficult to incorporate oily and oil-containing additives, especially natural or identical-to-natural ethereal or fatty vegetable oils, in cosmetic and pharmaceutical preparations since it is difficult to emulsify substances of this type. Therefore, it is necessary to use special emulsifiers or emulsifier mixtures. In the prior art, these were primarily ethylene oxide addition compounds which, although they have good emulsifying properties, are less desirable because of their toxicological and dermatological properties, and in particular cannot exert cosmetic effects.
On the other hand, known bath preparations which are intended to have both a cosmetic and a medicinal or therapeutic utility, usually have a complicated and expensive recipe.
In addition, emulsifiers which are suitable not only for preparing stable oil/water systems, such as, for example, bath oil formulations, but which also exert a physiological action, in particular a skin-caring and/or skin-protecting effect, have not been available in sufficient amounts.